1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, control method, and computer-readable storage medium storing a program to execute printing processing using a printing job.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the commercial printing industry, printing materials are issued through various types of work processes. Such processes include input of an original document, attaching a design to the original document, layout editing, comprehensive layouts, proofreading, proofing, mechanical creating, printing, post-processing process, transmitting, and so forth.
In the case of the commercial printing industry, offset reproduction printing apparatuses are often used in printing processes, whereby mechanical creating processing is an indispensable process. However, with mechanical creating, once performed, correction thereof is not readily made, and in the case of performing corrections, the cost becomes inefficient. Accordingly, with mechanical creating, careful proofreading (i.e. carefully checking layouts and confirming colors) becomes necessary. Therefore, until the issue of the output article is completed, a certain length of time has generally been required.
Also, in the case of the commercial printing industry, an apparatus used in the various work processes are mostly heavy duty and have a high cost, and since professional knowledge is required for the work with these various processes, the know-how of a so-called expert person with experience has been indispensable.
Now, in recent times, electrophotography and inkjet printing apparatuses have increased in speed and image quality, whereby a so-called POD (Print On Demand) market is emerging, competing with the commercial printing industry. The POD market has emerged instead of large-scale printing apparatuses and printing methods so as to be able to handle relatively small lot jobs in a short time period without employing a heavy duty apparatus or system. In the POD market, printing apparatuses such as digital photocopiers or digital multi-function apparatuses are maximally employed, whereby digital printing using electronic data is realized and a printing service can be performed.
In such a situation, currently office machine manufacturers have been researching entering a new direction in a new field called a POD market (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-310746 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-310747). Recently in particular, research continues for printing apparatuses and printing systems, not only for the office environment for example, but also to sufficiently satisfy a POD environment that can be expected to have use cases and needs different from those in the office environment. Assuming a printing environment in such a POD market, it is expected that how the printing systems can improve productivity will be closely watched. Also, it is expected that how easily an operator of a printing system can use the printing system while maintaining high productivity, will be closely watched.
Recently, printing apparatuses for the POD market have come to be able to handle JDF (Job Definition Format). JDF is s common digital format (also called an instruction file or job ticket) relating to printing processes as a whole, for systems for the POD market defined by CIP4 (Cooperation for the Integration of Processing Prepress, Press and Postpress). JDF uses XML which is a basic Web format for the format thereof. Using this feature, advantages of management relating to overall printing processes are expected such as production management on a website, confirming operational state of various apparatuses such as printer, binder, and the like.
Strictly defining the form of the output article is strongly desired with JDF. The reason thereof is that if the output article obtained according to client instructions is not the output article according to client intent, the printing company must perform printing processing again based on the instructions and desires of the client, raising costs.
However, creating a job ticket that strictly regulates the output article form satisfying the above-described conditions of the client is actually difficult. This is because in order to perform such strict regulating, professional knowledge relating to the work processed in each process of the printing workflow is necessary, but the client generally does not have such professional knowledge.
With the POD market, reprinting may be a operation that exists, but in the case that a job ticket strictly defining the output article form is not transmitted, the output article at the time of previous printing and the output article at the time of reprinting may differ, whereby the client may be obtain the desired output article.